Dr. Lucrecia Crescent
|image = File:200px-Lucrecia1.jpg |imagewidth = |caption = This is |Row 1 title = Nicknames |Row 1 info = Lu, Lucy, 'Crecia |Row 2 title = Gender |Row 2 info = Female |Row 3 title = Age |Row 3 info = 28 |Row 4 title = Species |Row 4 info = Human |Row 5 title = Languages |Row 5 info = Common, Cetrain |Row 6 title = Room |Row 6 info = 6366 (Deck 7) |Row 7 title = Canon |Row 7 info = Final Fantasy VII |Row 8 title = Journal |Row 8 info = I can't take the embrace of a real romance |Row 9 title = Mun |Row 9 info = Aly }} is on a boat! Canon Information Background: ' Always excelling in school, due to the early encouragement of her veterinarian father, Lucrecia began college early, just after turning 17. Overjoyed to find biophysics as an undergraduate major, she combined her love of molecular movements and organisms into studying complex adaptive systems and connective planetary physiology. Her work, as well as her minors in anthropology, astronomy, and folklore, caught the eye of Dr. Grimoire Valentine, who offered to hire her on as a graduate assistant for his work in ancient WEAPONs. While his own interest was turning from Omega and the relational defensive xenoforms to mako itself--he had accidentally stumbled on several helpful and profitable reserves of the stuff--Lucrecia fell in professional love with a side subject of Omega: Chaos. Her doctoral work became exclusively Chaos Theory, with enthusiastic encouragement from her mentor. This led to both her thesis, drawn from information out of a Cetrain text, ''The Chronicles of Yore, and the discovery of the Crystal Cavern--where she would later be interred--by a joint expedition with Grimoire Her passion became more complicated as her attachment to the work became an attachment to Dr. Valentine, first as a father figure, then hinting at a possible romantic attraction. She never had a chance to explore her feelings, however, as by some random chance or careless mistake, a lab accident awakened Chaos. Grimoire shielded Lucrecia from the demon’s attack, dying as a result. Guilt and angst rose within her, and she took on the burden of responsibility for his death, though she worked hard to bury it, like all her sins, by forging ahead with her work. The problem now was ShinRa considered her a liability. Unable to fire her, they shuffled her from department to department, keeping her in assistant positions where she had relatively small responsibilities and couldn’t cost them too much revenue. She fought the decisions, but the corporate world proved harsher than the academic, and she finally resigned herself to fate. Fate included landing on the Jenova research team with Professor Gast and his own assistant, Dr. Hojo. The work was controversial even then, but Lucrecia welcomed the chance to do something more satisfying. Being on a lead team earned some of her respect back from those under her, and her past seemed truly behind her. The only complication with all this, was in the Turk assigned to protect the team: Vincent Valentine, Grimoire's son. He and Lucrecia ended up in an awkward romance for a time, until he discovered that she had worked for his father, a fact she had, for the sake of her guilt, attempted to hide. Having the knowledge out in the open put a rift in the relationship for her, and she soon left him for her colleague, Professor Hojo, who's child she would shortly be carrying. What else looms in her future: The three would continue the dance between them for some time, as Lucrecia found herself unable to truly let go of Vincent due to his connection to his father, the same thing that would not allow her to stay with him. Instead, she kept him just at arm's length, where he would bear witness to her descent into madness and bodily degradation. She would finally lose him to a fatal shooting by Hojo, and when her husband discarded the almost dead man, it would be Lucrecia who "salvaged" him by implanting Chaos within him, held in place and control by processed samples of Protomateria from the crystal cave. Some time after giving birth to the infamous Sephiroth, Lucrecia is overcome with her grief and declining health and attempts suicide. Jenova leaves her suspended somewhere between life and true death, and she is placed in the Crystal Cavern by an unknown individual to wait out eternity in a quasi-stasis. '''Abilities/Powers: Lucrecia's range of abilities is mostly limited to her sharp mind: biophysics, medical science as related to biotechnology and first aid, materia engineering, and basic potion making. These, of course, are based in the knowledge of her homeworld, and--particularly in the area of potions and materia--their use would be contingent on parallels being found on board, meaning she would likely lack very immediate solutions, needing laborious research and experimentation to find a solution. She has a high level of reading comprehension and many critical thinking skills, so she can learn academic subjects quickly, but her "soft" people skills are not always the best, leaving her sometimes awkward in social situations, despite a cheerful smile and polite demeanor. Strengths: Weaknesses: Personality: The difference between weakness and wickedness is much less than people suppose; and the consequences are nearly always the same. --Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington Lucrecia Crescent is a stubborn, paradoxical individual. While she is a brilliant and dedicated woman, she often overreacts and overemotes in stressful situations. She is a very interdependent type of personality who develops and clings to her chosen support network of a few trusted individuals, usually connected to her current work somehow, to stay together. If these supports for one reason or another vanish, she will move on to a "replacement goldfish" who shares traits with the person she lost. However weak this might make her sound, Lucrecia is anything but. Despite her constant search for security and the ease at which she is hurt, it takes a great deal of pressure for her to admit defeat. She is the type of person who will force herself to carry on with a broken smile, choosing to push through behind a blustery mask until she has a chance to fill her cracks in private. One major obstacle in Lucrecia's path is a guilt complex we see beginning with Dr. Valentine's death. She will eagerly take all the blame for tragedies that grace those close to her, though she escapes responsibility by either voluntarily punishing herself to a horrid and public extent, or by citing mitigating circumstances that make others pity her enough to argue with her assessment of her "sins." It is true that Lucrecia jumps into projects--both professional and personal--head on, and without planning. The more things go wrong for her, the worse this focus on the future becomes and the less in the moment she is. Ironically, the guilt of her mistakes weighs on her and even as she races forward, she is always glancing over her shoulder at the pain from her past. Lucrecia's coping mechanism is her first love: science. Lucrecia has a sharp, quick mind and is able for short spurts to distance herself emotionally from her work. She has trained herself to make her first thought towards her research and scientific advancements, all the while telling herself it is for the good of others, whether it truly is or not--most often it is not, as her seeming sociopathy doesn't come with brakes. In her work, Lucrecia is a "big picture" person--incidentally, a visual learner as well--and not always detail-oriented. She seems to be less than familiar with the concept of Occham's razor sometimes, and her first instinct may be to devise an elaborate, complex schema that is both incomplete and laborious. Alternately, however, she can serve as an excellent support to a project as her love of the complex and focus towards outcome allows her to mentally visualize the end product of a given project (within the bound of known variables) and troubleshoot possible issues. She often mixes the mystical and metaphysical into her research and her worldview is surprisingly Romantic for a scientist. In her mind, all the myths really are true, the gods are alive and well, and the magic of the universe is just waiting for scientific research to catch up. But, after being ridiculed for her work in the Chaos project, she is loathe to reveal this mode of thought, and is insistent the only important filter for her to view the world is objective, rational science. Depending on her mood, which, obviously, changes rapidly, a stranger might find her anything from standoffish and cold (when she feels shy or threatened) to warm and awkwardly friendly (when she's in a good mood). Close friends will find her to have a sharp wit, often trading quite snarky comments as friendly jabs and jokes. Whether she means to or not, ironically, this emotionally oversensitive scientist can sometimes accidentally hurt anyone around her with a chip on his/her shoulder. She's generally quick to apologize--profusely--for any perceived wrongdoing, and will go overboard trying to make it right, though it's more from her pre-occupation with how others perceive her, less from inner convication. If she is hurt in turn? It becomes easy to see why apologies fly so quickly from her lips as true forgiveness is hard to attain from her. Depending on the nature of the offense, she's likely to smile and tell you it's all right, then wait until you turn your back to sink the dagger. Passive-aggressive and manipulative behavior is a bane of hers, a bad habit she doesn't seem intent on breaking. However, save for her infamous silent treatment, it might be preferable to her raving, screaming tantrums she tries to make as utterly rare as possible. But don't worry! The tempest in a teacup will be back around to apologize very soon. She's like temperate spring weather: if you don't like her, just wait five minutes, she'll change. While it's hard for many to get past her prickly shell, any who are able to dig into her heart will find a generally well-meaning friend--whether or not this is a blessing or curse, well, perhaps one should ask those who know her best. Extra: Elegante Deaths: Warnings & Punishments: Relationships Canonmates: Vincent: '''Evidence that Lucy breaks all the things. She has feelings for the former Turk, feelings that are even more convoluted since she realized he is carrying, in essence, the completion of her thesis that in her own time has been shoved into highly ridiculed storage. Even if Chaos didn't hang between them, she's fully aware her initial attraction to him was due to his father being her former mentor, and she spends obsessive silent hours attempting to decide if she truly loves him for himself or simply who his looks remind her of. Currently, he is a thorn in her side and a weight on her back, and consequently, she will be orbiting him from various distances like a very irritating electron, unable to escape the polar attraction of its nucleus. '''Reno: They've met, there wasn't a hint of recognition--30 years difference will do that, just a tweaky discussion of how boats must be coming from... somewhere, right? '''Tseng: '''He, too, is from further down the timeline, far in her future, but has been keeping an eye on her--and her interactions with Vincent--for Veld. She conveniently decided he is Vincent's replacement as her bodyguard, and is just now learning that, no, he is just playing damage control, and she's the damage. '''Veld: '''Mostly, he's been a signature on a page to her, but she knows he is the former commander of the Turks, and had some interactions with both Hojo and Vincent. We're just waiting for the sparks to fly at some point. 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